Call for Papers

THEORY, DEVELOPMENT & EVALUATION OF SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY

Organizers: Research Training Group Crossworlds, Department of Computer Science and Institute for Media Research

Please note: Registration is open until June 23

CALL FOR PAPERS

We invite researchers from various disciplines to submit short papers to CrossWorlds 2014, the International Conference on theory, development and evaluation of social technology. Social technologies include both technologies that directly interact with users (e.g. social robots, virtual agents, assistance systems) and technologies that facilitate the interaction between two or more users (e.g. computer mediated communication, multiplayer games, multitouch tables).

Digital technologies have become an inherent part of our society, thus evolving into social actors themselves. This development changed the focus of research from questioning the general potential of technologies to more specific issues. Research from different disciplines addresses topics from modeling social aspects of technology to the design of human-computer interfaces. Following these focused approaches, it becomes even more important to understand the emerging connections between users, contexts and social technologies.

The conference addresses this issue and provides a platform for vital discussions about different aspects of social technology. To enable a broad debate on the subject, approaches from various disciplines, methods and perspectives are encouraged. Presentations may feature algorithms, technology, implemented systems, empirical research and theoretical considerations.

Conference topics include (but are not limited to):

What makes social technology social and intelligent and which procedures can be employed?

How can we model social behavior theoretically and practically?

Do we need new methods? How can we assess social interaction in the context of technology usage and development?

Which methodological approaches are appropriate for evaluation? Can social technology evaluate itself?

How can we account for ethical issues as well as non-affirmative and critical approaches in HCI?

How can the design of social technology be carried out interdisciplinarily?

How do developers’ tacit knowledge and concepts of sociality affect the design of social technologies?

How do different degrees of virtuality shape social interaction?

How can social technology be employed to catalyse interaction between users in non-virtual space?

How can Virtual and Augmented Reality be designed to create (virtual) sociality?

How can social technology account for user needs? In which ways can systems act proactively?

How can we shape user experience of social technologies? How important is it for social technology to be entertaining?

How can computer based learning be facilitated by social technologies?

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

We invite you to submit abstracts (PDF, minimum 500 words) to the program committee (crossworlds2014@tu-chemnitz.de) no later than 28.02.2014. The submissions will be subject to peer reviews. Please make sure, that you remove any author information including author names and references as well as acknowledgments and funding information. However, you should send your author and contact information on a separate cover page for the program committee.

Abstracts should make absolutely clear what the current status of the proposed work is. A preference is given to finished work ready for presentation (note: this also includes theoretical/conceptual papers, if the concept itself is the main subject of presentation). By submitting a paper the authors agree to personally present their research at the conference.

Conference abstracts will not be published/indexed, but are electronically distributed to the conference attendees. However, selected abstracts will be invited to be extended to full papers to be published in an edited collection of the conference proceedings.

The Research Training Group "Connecting Virtual and Real Social Worlds" addresses the increase in digitization and its resulting virtualization of processes, communication, environments, and finally of the human counterparts. The nature and the degree of virtualization vary significantly, and they depend considerably on the context of application. In addition, media-mediated communication is always restricted in comparison with real-world communication.
Our goal is to overcome the current constraints of media-mediated communication. In doing so, we will study which new ways of interaction and communication are offered by the connection of virtual and real social worlds in comparison with the experience of immediate real interaction and communication.
The research program subdivides the connection between virtual and real social environments into the fields of: communication, emotions, sensomotorics, and learning. Research in these areas is performed within interdisciplinary research networks consisting of computer scientists and social scientists on a doctoral, postdoctoral, and on the supervisory level.
The qualification program is based on the objective of the Research Training Group, which is explicitly focused on joint technology-oriented and social-scientific-oriented media research. Seminars and workshops, some of them to be organized by the fellows, are focused on the research topics of the fellows. Furthermore, tutorials repare the fellows for the challenges of the national and international scientific community. The qualification program is completed by visits of designated guest scholars.